With Ryder and Ruby

Last... May, June? or thereabouts, we started taking care of a couple of kids that live right next door. They come and play three days a week while their parents are at work or in school. Ruby was our new 'young one' and so much fun. I don't see Ryder that much as he is always playing with Otto, Solomon or Olivia. When Ryder is here for quiet time Solomon will read him books until I say they have to stop (I have to have some silent time in the afternoons). I'm sure they often read a whole hour! The following pictures show this event. Also, we see Ruby with Louis grinding grain and Otto working on his math. Ruby absolutely loves Otto and says his name often; it is an easy one. One of Olivia's jobs is cleaning up the table and sweeping the floor after lunch. She does a great job. Sorry, the pictures are in reverse order. 

Little Time, Little Post

Greg bought me some lovely roses for Valentine's Day! They lasted more than a week and were so beautiful on this sunny day. I wish the pictures did them justice, but you get the idea.

For years Greg has wanted to get Triominos. He has many fond memories playing this game with his family. We are now doing the same with ours.

trip to OMSI

I am so glad Greg made this video after our trip to OMSI. We haven't been there in years (it's expensive), but Dad and Eunice bought us a family pass for Christmas and we are enjoying it!

New Camera

Well, Greg got me a new camera so I now feel more pressure to blog. It has obviously not been a top priority. Soon I will post some pictures from our trip to OMSI (last month). Here are some pictures from Saturday. In the future I will not be in so many of these, but I think Greg took more pictures the first day than I did. :-)

Makeshift Fun

Sometimes I wonder if we should spend more money on things like soccer balls and footballs, baseball gloves and bats, so that the kids have more experience with these sports. Over the summer the kids would make up their own games, this one being close to baseball, but slightly different rules. The ball is a foam box that was a baby toy, but the plastic outside came off and they covered it with duct tape. We are so proud of our children!

Here are some photos also. The video shows Olivia's success, but there was some discouragement as well. Otto is a good comforter, a great brother.

Here are two fantastic videos that Greg put together:

Olivia riding her bike

Family ride to Farmer's Market

Need help with a loose tooth?

I took these pictures a few weeks ago. Olivia has a couple of teeth coming in, but her little mouth is going to have a hard time fitting them well. One of her baby teeth was getting pushed to the front where no tooth was going to push it out so I encouraged her often to wiggle it and work at getting it out. It was quite loose, but with no tooth pushing it things were stalling. One night when the kids were watching a movie upstairs I heard her fussing, then Louis talking, then her laughing. This routine (fussing, talking, laughing) was going on quite awhile and I began to realize that Louis was trying to help her get her tooth out. He has helped Otto with loose teeth several times and I chose to stay out of sight and see how things would play out. It wasn't too long and they came downstairs successful. Aren't big brothers wonderful!